Kofi Annan `horrified` by Syria massacre, 108 dead

Beirut: UN envoy Kofi Annan on Monday called on "every individual with a gun" in Syria to lay down arms, saying he was horrified by a weekend massacre that killed more than 100 people, including women and small children.

Even Syria`s staunchest ally Russia joined sweeping international criticism of the mass killings on Friday in the Houla area, saying the government was at least partly to blame for one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad`s rule.

"I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla two days ago, which took so many innocent lives, children, women and men," Annan said as he arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus for talks with Assad and other senior officials.

He called on all sides of the conflict to end the bloodshed, saying "this message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun."

The killings in Houla, a collection of villages in the central province of Homs, was condemned internationally although world powers differed over whether Assad`s forces were exclusively to blame.

Activists from the Houla area said the army pounded the villages with artillery and clashed with local rebels after protests Friday. Some activists said pro-regime thugs later stormed the area, doing the bulk of the killing by gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.

The Syrian government rejected that narrative and claimed soldiers were attacked in their bases and fought back in self-defense.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov contended in Moscow both the government and the rebels were to blame. Russia has shielded Syria from UN resolutions condemning the regime in the past, but has grown increasingly critical of Assad`s government in recent months.

"Both sides have obviously had a hand in the deaths of innocent people, including several dozen women and children," Lavrov said. "This area is controlled by the rebels, but it is also surrounded by the government troops."

Lavrov spoke after talks with visiting British Foreign Secretary William Hague in Moscow.
The brutality of the killings came across in amateur videos posted online that showed scores of bodies, many of them young children, in neat rows and covered with blood and deep wounds. A later video showed the bodies, wrapped in white sheets, being placed in a sprawling mass grave.